E-Handbook:

BPM tools try to add customization without complication

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Low-code capabilities aren't the only twists in BPM

One thing all businesses have in common is the belief that they need to get better at adapting to change. It's as if they've come to believe that their lives depend on it.

Maybe that's why organizations turn to BPM tools and other products to ease those adjustments and make them essentially continuous. BPM, or business process management, is how companies organize the changes they make to behavior and systems. And it, too, is evolving.

Recent successes in the low-code movement are part of this new wave. Vendors are now working artificial intelligence and robotic process automation into tooling, which helps organizations streamline repetitive tasks, customize their applications and push the limits of efficiency.

AI is seen as a tool to produce better code for application development. AI-enabled, low-code BPM tools could, for instance, review documents and make recommendations without human involvement.

As for robotic process automation, while it sounds impossibly futuristic, RPA is beginning to click with some organizations -- especially in situations where it can aid interactions with customers. One Forrester Research analyst projected a rapid acceleration in spending on RPA software, from $500 million in 2018 to $2.8 billion by 2023.

Organizations can join RPA with BPM to break down barriers between applications and services and give a business the chance to use any type of software in its process automation efforts.

This handbook looks at how vendors are trying to put more-powerful BPM tools into the hands of so-called citizen developers. AI and RPA are part of that.

No matter how responsive an organization is to market changes, it's difficult to shake the worry that a competitor might adjust quicker or more efficiently. Maybe it's paranoia -- or maybe it's survival. Whatever it is, it's happening. And your BPM tools might be the things you need to keep pace.